Roblox will introduce stronger safeguards for children following an enforceable undertaking accepted by Australia’s online safety regulator.
Australia’s online safety regulator has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from gaming platform Roblox to introduce measures designed to better protect children from grooming, sexual exploitation and abuse.
eSafety accepted the undertaking following concerns that Roblox was not meeting its obligations under the Online Safety Act, including requirements to prevent contact between adults and children under 16.
The Relevant Electronic Services Standard, which applies to online gaming platforms including Roblox, also requires children’s accounts to be private by default and platforms to provide accessible reporting mechanisms that notify users of complaint outcomes.
eSafety testing earlier this year identified gaps in Roblox’s safety systems, including allowing contact between children and adult strangers.
The testing found adults could send connection requests to young Australian children without parental or carer consent. Children and adults could also view and respond to each other’s posts on forums outside game environments without parental or carer consent.
Children’s connections were visible to other users, while profiles and biographies could include account names, connections, avatar images and information such as interests.
Although Roblox maintains that it is meeting its obligations under the Online Safety Act, the company has committed to additional safety measures.
These include preventing adults from contacting unknown children without parental consent, making children’s accounts private by default and providing reporting mechanisms that notify users of complaint outcomes.
Roblox will also engage an independent third-party auditor to assess the effectiveness of its safety measures, including its age-estimation technology.
The company has three months to implement the changes.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said the undertaking was significant given the platform’s popularity among Australian children.
“Roblox is the second most popular game with children in Australia and recent national research estimates there are about 1.7 million Australian children on the platform,” she said.
“We want to ensure that any platform with a high preponderance of kids [is] a safe place where they can enjoy the benefits of online gaming, creativity and connection, including building their own worlds and experiences online.”
Ms Inman Grant said those benefits depended on effective safeguards.
“But those benefits can only be realised when effective safeguards are in place to protect children from serious harms such as grooming, child sexual exploitation, sextortion or recruitment into violent extremism,” she said.
She also highlighted the requirement for independent auditing of Roblox’s safety measures.
“Critically, the inclusion of third-party auditing ensures Roblox cannot mark their own homework, and there will be robust independent evaluation of these commitments,” she said.
“This is the first time such third-party auditing has been required under Australia’s Online Safety Act.”
The undertaking forms part of eSafety’s broader work to improve safety and accountability across the online gaming sector.
In April, eSafety issued transparency notices to Roblox and other gaming services requiring them to report on measures they are taking to protect children from harms including child sexual exploitation and abuse, violent material and activity, cyberbullying and online hate.
A report on the findings from those notices is expected later this year.
If Roblox breaches the undertaking, eSafety may apply to the Federal Court for an order directing the company to comply and any other order the Court considers appropriate.